Best columns: Business

The greening of our gadgets

“Americans have never been more addicted to devices,” said Nathaniel Bullard and Adam Minter. The U.S. is home to 238 million mobile phones and 140 million tablets “that are rarely shut down,” leading some analysts to warn of a “looming electronic nightmare” in which we consume “increasingly higher volumes of the world’s limited resources.” But if you look at the data, that’s just not happening. In fact, “America’s gadget habit has never been greener.” Remarkably, there are fewer devices in American households now than there were four years ago. It makes sense when you consider the gadgets that have been rendered obsolete or replaced: Tablets supplanted your second TV—and its set-top box. A tablet also likely displaced your laptop, which had already replaced your desktop. Smartphones are increasingly eliminating everything else. “The result for energy is striking.” Our gadgets now use 25 percent less energy than they did in 2010, because “for all their ubiquity, smartphones and tablets actually use very little electricity,” particularly compared with power-guzzling tube TVs and desktop computers. Our smaller devices also require fewer raw materials. We still have work to do on improving the life span of these lighter, less power-hungry electronics, and in making them more recyclable. Several major companies are at work on just that. “That’s good news for consumers, and even better news for the environment.”

Where the recession endures

Alana Semuels

The Atlantic

“The Rust Belt isn’t the only region left behind by the economic recovery,” said Alana Semuels. A large cluster of “economically distressed communities” in the American West—especially in suburban areas in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada decimated by the housing crisis—are battling an ugly new reality of “pervasive crime and poverty.” Burdened with some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the country, and cut off from “the benefits of the modern economy,” these suburbs demonstrate how “the geography of poverty has changed in America.” Formerly middle-class neighborhoods are becoming poorer. Gated communities once considered luxury developments are increasingly dilapidated and susceptible to theft and crime. “It’s not that there aren’t jobs” in these areas; it’s that most are “low-paying and unstable,” in fields such as retail, manufacturing, and warehousing—hardly the type to provide a family with a comfortable middle-class life. Residents feel “the economic tide has turned against” them, leaving “no path back to vitality.” The cycle is vicious: As poverty becomes more pervasive, businesses close, tax revenue drops, and the quality of services such as schools and local police deteriorates further. Then the area becomes even less able to attract new residents and businesses. While many of us only see the recession “in the rearview mirror, distressed areas are still there, unable to move ahead.”